I worked at the park over the summer. Management never actually talks to ride ops or encourages employees to go faster so ride ops just slowly get slower throughout the summer. Also on certain rides like candymonium or wildcats revenge you have to check seatbelts visually then check restraints and with slow ops it’s just so inefficient It’s also partially Hershey tries harder to be safer with ops so there’s a lot more ride ops have to do than other parks like on skyrush going in a circle with our visual checks and stuff
As someone who was a ride op at Hershey this last summer, our operations were pretty sad. I mostly worked at Storm Runner, Trailblazer, Remix, and the rides around there. One problem is that we train people from all over the world, and that causes slow operations with a lot of new people each week as well as a sometimes hefty language barrier. Furthermore, I would sometimes have to encourage other attendants and employees with whom I had worked to speed things up and pay attention to what was going on in the station. I loved the job and those with whom I worked, but efficiency was hindered by poor communication at times and occasional lack of attentiveness. With that being said, Hershey is amazing! The ride lineup is insane, and I still encourage many of you to keep coming to the park at all times of year.
@@papaschilke I’m surprised language barrier would be a factor since Cedar Point and Kings Island also hire internationally and their ops are awesome. Regardless Hershey is an amazing park and if they fix the ops issue I would rank this park easily in my top 10, probably getting close to top 5. I hope one day it does happen.
@@Parkproductions1991 oh I totally agree. It’s less because of the international program but how park leadership communicates. Let’s just say it’s been slacking HORRIBLY. Kings Island And Cedar Point communicate well so that no matter who you are, everyone is on the same page
@@papaschilke I figured it was more of a lack of push from upper management. I really hope the continuation of poor feedback on operations will eventually persuade them to fix the issue.
I worked there over the summer as well. I had multiple times in the north where I tried to be efficient and move faster and my supervisors got mad and told me that to the guests it looked like I was being unsafe, then on wildcat or Fahrenheit we’d be told we were too slow and need to run more. Then you go to central and everything is as slow as possible
@@galliumg8483 I heard central was the worst, especially from a few friends of mine. IDK if you worked with other good ops in the north, but I've heard mixed things there. East, the only part I worked besides one day in Boardwalk, was an excellent team; the only ride that was impossible to be efficient at was Mix'd. Unfortunately, there was a time a lead warned me not to dispatch one of the Storm Runner trains until after the other train came back in the station. I'm sorry, old lead, but me and my supervisors know the safest and soonest time to dispatch a train on Runner. That stuff was so annoying. I hope you enjoyed it, too, though.
My thoughts exactly. I love Hershey (and skyrush is my number 1!) but they are not good at dealing with crowds. I was there on the 14th of September (I had fast track so whatever) and trailblazer, comet, and great bear had absolutely abysmal ops. The ops for storm runner were fine but the park was running 1 train on 1 side. On opening Saturday to dark nights. Again I love Hershey but it would be an s tier park if they could handle crowds better
I adore Hershey Park and think this is a very accurate review. My biggest issue has been their awful operations on their B&M coasters (Candymonium & Great Bear). There is absolutely no excuse for this, considering these rides should be the highest capacity in the park. Wildcat's Revenge is incredible and the addition of the unloading station + the free lockers make this arguably the most efficent rollercoaster at Hershey. Despite some minor operational issues, this is easily one of the best theme parks in the United States. Oh, and i totally agree if you only have one day, the Fast Track is essential, although Laff Trak will still be at least a 25 to 30 minute wait regardless due to where they let you in to the queue.
If laugh track is less than 1.5hr wait, its WORTH. I remember having to wait 4 hours on the debut day, but it was such an enjoyable ride, my teenager self almost thought it was worth the wait
Hersheypark is 1.5 hours away from me. It's my home park pretty much. I've gone a few dozen times since the addition of Candymonium. It's always stacked. Going slow or fast, it will stack. It's too short with all the block zones, except for the lift, being at the end of the ride. If it doesn't stack the third train, it is close to being stacked anyhow.
I think with a good crew you can run 3 trains on Candymonium. Its prime ride time is almost identical to Orion and KI is able to crank out 3 trains easily on that thing. Usually only one train stacks behind the station.
@@Parkproductions1991 in my visits Candymonium rarely runs less than all 3 trains. Weekdays during Christmas Candylane is really the only times I saw them going with 2.
I went last year, I will have to say the ride ops on SkyRush were amazing and funny “yes we rode the teacups” cleanliness and friendliness of the park and staff were good. While riding super duper looper, a ride op was yelling for throughput. For a regional park I really enjoyed it. Biggest qualm for our visit was breakdowns, we seen too many mechanics over 2 days
@@Professa2210 Skyrush was pretty good when I was there. That and Wildcat’s Revenge is what saved the score from being even worse. For me not much went down while I was there. It’s all luck sometimes.
@@colleenwins The theming seems hit or miss on what attractions have it. But regardless HP is an amusement park so it doesn’t need elaborate theming. Nice when they go the extra mile.
I find this really intresting given that when I went in Early June I found the operations to be quite good. 40 second dispatches on WCR and sub one minute on Fahrenheit. Storm Runner and lightning racer were both around 90 seconds but yeah Candy was at 2 minute or more. I wonder if they get worse as the season goes on?
@@BoulderDashBoy That seems to be the consensus. I visited in mid August. So I guess go in early season if you don’t want to be driven crazy by the ops.
I agree with you completely. I love Hershey. In my experience the only attractions that had good operations were Wildcats revenge and Candymonium. All the other coasters ops were abysmal. I feel like it gets worse every year. I’m an enthusiast myself so I’ve been to A LOT of parks. It’s truly elite but their operations are not. And PS. I doubt it will improve by your next visit lol. I’ve been going every year for years and it hasn’t changed. By the way. On a side I think wildcats revenge is a top 4 RMC. I was able to go to Cedar Point and Hershey within a span of 5 days. I got 3 rides on Steve and Several on WCR. At points it felt like WCR was more aggressive. To each their own. Liked your review
@@Parkproductions1991 perhaps. Great bears dispatch times are a hot mess. The last few times I’ve been to Hershey they were 3 train ops with dispatches less than a minute. That was after July 4th
Yeah I mean the operations aren't great but the coasters and great appearance/food should really counteract all of that. The top 7 is as elite as it gets
@@chasebingaman While attractions are very important, which is why it makes up 40% of the roller coaster rundown score and the biggest contribution, operations are very important where if the operations are so poor it’s hard to ride the rides, it doesn’t matter how good the rides are.
The chocolate company does NOT own hersheypark. Hersheypark is owned by hershey entertainment and resorts. Chocolate world is owned directly by the hershey company. Hersheypark has nothing to do with the hershey company.
All the respect I was not very impressed with Hershey Park when I was there roughly around 8 years ago. I had high expectations concerning the park. I have never gotten airtime off of skyrush. Fahrenheit was just okay. The rest weren't that memorable. I remember instead going to Kennywood on the same trip having a low expectations that in contrast for far exceeded by comparison. For Hershey to be elite, They need more variety.
@@colinschmitz8297 granted they have added a good bit in 8 years. Its coaster line up is just now recently getting very good. The rest of the park needs to catch up.
I’d agree with the food for sure as I’m very much not a fan of theme park food. But their new sit down restaurant is a 10/10 for me at just that spot. I only ate 1 meal a day there when I went with the family saving up my appetite for the filet mignion which so delivered! Ops were pretty bad though. Meant I missed a lot of coasters because I didn’t want to leave my wife and 2 kids for extended periods of time. 2 days there and I still missed 6 coasters. Terrible.
@@EnoughRhetoric The food at the sit down restaurant looks great. I really wanted to eat there, but we just didn’t have time with one day in the park. Next time for sure.
I don't think a lot of people realize that being a ride op isn't always easy. Most of us are doing our best and trying to get trains out as safely and quickly as possible. But sometimes being at Skyrush for the better part of 8 hours and having to lift the restraints up and down constantly is hard
It’s true, being a ride op is not easy. I used to be an attractions host at Walt Disney World. However I still think there should be a little more pep in the step and get a high throughput. There is of course safety be considered, especially for the ops to make sure they do not strain themselves. But with proper tools, stretches, and support from management it can be done.
@@Parkproductions1991 There are two. One is not far into the park, a little past Candymonium and one is near Tidal Force. I usually go to the one near the front of the park.
I worked at the park over the summer. Management never actually talks to ride ops or encourages employees to go faster so ride ops just slowly get slower throughout the summer. Also on certain rides like candymonium or wildcats revenge you have to check seatbelts visually then check restraints and with slow ops it’s just so inefficient
It’s also partially Hershey tries harder to be safer with ops so there’s a lot more ride ops have to do than other parks like on skyrush going in a circle with our visual checks and stuff
As someone who was a ride op at Hershey this last summer, our operations were pretty sad. I mostly worked at Storm Runner, Trailblazer, Remix, and the rides around there. One problem is that we train people from all over the world, and that causes slow operations with a lot of new people each week as well as a sometimes hefty language barrier. Furthermore, I would sometimes have to encourage other attendants and employees with whom I had worked to speed things up and pay attention to what was going on in the station. I loved the job and those with whom I worked, but efficiency was hindered by poor communication at times and occasional lack of attentiveness. With that being said, Hershey is amazing! The ride lineup is insane, and I still encourage many of you to keep coming to the park at all times of year.
@@papaschilke I’m surprised language barrier would be a factor since Cedar Point and Kings Island also hire internationally and their ops are awesome.
Regardless Hershey is an amazing park and if they fix the ops issue I would rank this park easily in my top 10, probably getting close to top 5. I hope one day it does happen.
@@Parkproductions1991 oh I totally agree. It’s less because of the international program but how park leadership communicates. Let’s just say it’s been slacking HORRIBLY. Kings Island And Cedar Point communicate well so that no matter who you are, everyone is on the same page
@@papaschilke I figured it was more of a lack of push from upper management. I really hope the continuation of poor feedback on operations will eventually persuade them to fix the issue.
I worked there over the summer as well. I had multiple times in the north where I tried to be efficient and move faster and my supervisors got mad and told me that to the guests it looked like I was being unsafe, then on wildcat or Fahrenheit we’d be told we were too slow and need to run more.
Then you go to central and everything is as slow as possible
@@galliumg8483 I heard central was the worst, especially from a few friends of mine. IDK if you worked with other good ops in the north, but I've heard mixed things there. East, the only part I worked besides one day in Boardwalk, was an excellent team; the only ride that was impossible to be efficient at was Mix'd. Unfortunately, there was a time a lead warned me not to dispatch one of the Storm Runner trains until after the other train came back in the station. I'm sorry, old lead, but me and my supervisors know the safest and soonest time to dispatch a train on Runner. That stuff was so annoying. I hope you enjoyed it, too, though.
Great Park season pass holder live 90 minutes away but the park is always crowed and yes operations are slow.
My thoughts exactly. I love Hershey (and skyrush is my number 1!) but they are not good at dealing with crowds. I was there on the 14th of September (I had fast track so whatever) and trailblazer, comet, and great bear had absolutely abysmal ops. The ops for storm runner were fine but the park was running 1 train on 1 side. On opening Saturday to dark nights. Again I love Hershey but it would be an s tier park if they could handle crowds better
I adore Hershey Park and think this is a very accurate review. My biggest issue has been their awful operations on their B&M coasters (Candymonium & Great Bear). There is absolutely no excuse for this, considering these rides should be the highest capacity in the park. Wildcat's Revenge is incredible and the addition of the unloading station + the free lockers make this arguably the most efficent rollercoaster at Hershey. Despite some minor operational issues, this is easily one of the best theme parks in the United States. Oh, and i totally agree if you only have one day, the Fast Track is essential, although Laff Trak will still be at least a 25 to 30 minute wait regardless due to where they let you in to the queue.
@@greghaus it’s crazy how their B&M’s have awful operations. Like you said, there is no excuse.
If laugh track is less than 1.5hr wait, its WORTH. I remember having to wait 4 hours on the debut day, but it was such an enjoyable ride, my teenager self almost thought it was worth the wait
@@CelestialOrion811 I will for sure rope drop that one whenever my next visit is.
Hersheypark is 1.5 hours away from me. It's my home park pretty much. I've gone a few dozen times since the addition of Candymonium. It's always stacked. Going slow or fast, it will stack. It's too short with all the block zones, except for the lift, being at the end of the ride. If it doesn't stack the third train, it is close to being stacked anyhow.
I think with a good crew you can run 3 trains on Candymonium. Its prime ride time is almost identical to Orion and KI is able to crank out 3 trains easily on that thing. Usually only one train stacks behind the station.
@@Parkproductions1991 in my visits Candymonium rarely runs less than all 3 trains. Weekdays during Christmas Candylane is really the only times I saw them going with 2.
I went last year, I will have to say the ride ops on SkyRush were amazing and funny “yes we rode the teacups” cleanliness and friendliness of the park and staff were good. While riding super duper looper, a ride op was yelling for throughput. For a regional park I really enjoyed it. Biggest qualm for our visit was breakdowns, we seen too many mechanics over 2 days
@@Professa2210 Skyrush was pretty good when I was there. That and Wildcat’s Revenge is what saved the score from being even worse. For me not much went down while I was there. It’s all luck sometimes.
I think theming and entertainment are things that have been lost there in recent years and that bums me out. But I still love HP!
@@colleenwins The theming seems hit or miss on what attractions have it. But regardless HP is an amusement park so it doesn’t need elaborate theming. Nice when they go the extra mile.
I find this really intresting given that when I went in Early June I found the operations to be quite good. 40 second dispatches on WCR and sub one minute on Fahrenheit. Storm Runner and lightning racer were both around 90 seconds but yeah Candy was at 2 minute or more. I wonder if they get worse as the season goes on?
@@BoulderDashBoy That seems to be the consensus. I visited in mid August. So I guess go in early season if you don’t want to be driven crazy by the ops.
Good review. Good video. I've never been to Hershey Park but the wife and I both very keen to go.
@@soylentbob6725 hopefully you found some good tips to help you on your first visit. This review is based on my first visit last month.
I agree with you completely. I love Hershey. In my experience the only attractions that had good operations were Wildcats revenge and Candymonium. All the other coasters ops were abysmal. I feel like it gets worse every year. I’m an enthusiast myself so I’ve been to A LOT of parks. It’s truly elite but their operations are not. And PS. I doubt it will improve by your next visit lol. I’ve been going every year for years and it hasn’t changed. By the way. On a side I think wildcats revenge is a top 4 RMC. I was able to go to Cedar Point and Hershey within a span of 5 days. I got 3 rides on Steve and Several on WCR. At points it felt like WCR was more aggressive. To each their own. Liked your review
@@KingWill04 Maybe I went when the candymonium crew was really off because them and Great Bear were the worst offenders.
@@Parkproductions1991 perhaps. Great bears dispatch times are a hot mess. The last few times I’ve been to Hershey they were 3 train ops with dispatches less than a minute. That was after July 4th
@@Parkproductions1991yup. Wildcats revenge was great, everything else sucked. Candymonium especially, until they wanted to leave at the end of the day
🤣, I've noticed that about candymonium too, if I'm actually there near closing suddenly they're hauling.
@@cpdragster420 that’s funny and depressing at the same time.
Yeah I mean the operations aren't great but the coasters and great appearance/food should really counteract all of that. The top 7 is as elite as it gets
@@chasebingaman While attractions are very important, which is why it makes up 40% of the roller coaster rundown score and the biggest contribution, operations are very important where if the operations are so poor it’s hard to ride the rides, it doesn’t matter how good the rides are.
The chocolate company does NOT own hersheypark. Hersheypark is owned by hershey entertainment and resorts. Chocolate world is owned directly by the hershey company. Hersheypark has nothing to do with the hershey company.
🤓🤓🤓
Im going to hershy next year, so this video definitely helped prepare me for that. Thank you!
Thank you for the credit :)
@@TheKrystalPalace Of course! Thanks for the footage!
All the respect I was not very impressed with Hershey Park when I was there roughly around 8 years ago. I had high expectations concerning the park. I have never gotten airtime off of skyrush. Fahrenheit was just okay. The rest weren't that memorable. I remember instead going to Kennywood on the same trip having a low expectations that in contrast for far exceeded by comparison. For Hershey to be elite, They need more variety.
@@colinschmitz8297 granted they have added a good bit in 8 years. Its coaster line up is just now recently getting very good. The rest of the park needs to catch up.
I’d agree with the food for sure as I’m very much not a fan of theme park food. But their new sit down restaurant is a 10/10 for me at just that spot. I only ate 1 meal a day there when I went with the family saving up my appetite for the filet mignion which so delivered!
Ops were pretty bad though. Meant I missed a lot of coasters because I didn’t want to leave my wife and 2 kids for extended periods of time. 2 days there and I still missed 6 coasters. Terrible.
@@EnoughRhetoric The food at the sit down restaurant looks great. I really wanted to eat there, but we just didn’t have time with one day in the park. Next time for sure.
I don't think a lot of people realize that being a ride op isn't always easy. Most of us are doing our best and trying to get trains out as safely and quickly as possible. But sometimes being at Skyrush for the better part of 8 hours and having to lift the restraints up and down constantly is hard
It’s true, being a ride op is not easy. I used to be an attractions host at Walt Disney World. However I still think there should be a little more pep in the step and get a high throughput. There is of course safety be considered, especially for the ops to make sure they do not strain themselves. But with proper tools, stretches, and support from management it can be done.
Next time you go get the kettle corn
@@Wolky324 Any particular location or is there multiple places in the park?
@@Parkproductions1991 There are two. One is not far into the park, a little past Candymonium and one is near Tidal Force. I usually go to the one near the front of the park.